You can shoot hoops, kick soccer balls, participate in salsa dancing and, yes, do some yoga. The city is hosting the event for fun but also to announce that Broadway – a charming street that lost luster decades ago – is on the comeback.

To encourage new businesses and more street life by slowing traffic, the city plans to reduce lanes on Broadway in the next few years as well as widen sidewalks, add bike lanes and make intersections easier and safer for pedestrians to cross.

Be the first to know.

No one covers what is happening in our community better than we do. And with a digital subscription, you'll never miss a local story.

The Sunday Street event is free and will run from 8 a.m. to noon. You can park in the lots under the W-X freeway.

‘Sunday Street’

The inaugural free open-air festival on Broadway is Sunday, May 21, from 8 a.m. to noon.

The Sacramento Bee

Airport runway closing

Sacramento County officials have decided to shut down one of the three runways at Executive Airport to save on maintenance costs and for safety reasons.

Notably, it is not the runway involved in the horrible jet crash in 1972 that killed 23 people, 22 of them in a Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour across Freeport Boulevard.

Executive remains a popular facility for private aircraft, with about 90,000 annual takeoffs and landings. But that is not enough to require three runways, airport official Glen Rickelton said.

The odd thing about Executive is that all three of its runways cross one another. Federal aviation officials consider that a safety concern. The county will close the runway in the middle that runs directly north-south. It’s the shortest runway and in the worst shape.

Red-eye flights

A resident near Executive Airport recently complained about jets in the early morning hours. Is that a regular deal?

County airport officials say lower-decibel jets are allowed at Executive, and they can use the facility at any hour. The airport is getting more traffic because of its proximity to the new Golden 1 Center arena, and that apparently includes a rock star or two.

Related stories from Sacramento Bee

County airport officials said the airport recorded 21 jet operations between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. in March. Two were life-flight air ambulance operations. “Some of them are organ transports, where time is of the essence,” Rickelton said. “They do tend to operate at all hours.”

Snow, still?

This winter just will not let go. The National Weather Service is forecasting snow flurries several days this week on Interstate 80 at Donner Summit.

Caltrans’ Liza Whitmore says blizzards so far this winter forced highway closure for truckers more than 60 times. By comparison, the freeway was closed just 20 times last winter to trucks and 10 times the winter before.

Sometimes it wasn’t the snowfall that caused closures. It was the drivers. “People would spin out and we had to close it, and that happened frequently,” Whitmore said. “It certainly was quite a winter.”

She said Caltrans and the CHP plan a “lessons-learned” session next month to see what they can do better next year to keep commerce flowing over the summit.

About This Blog

Tony Bizjak has covered local transportation issues for The Sacramento Bee since 2003. Prior to that, he covered Sacramento City Hall and local government issues. A California native, Bizjak has a journalism degree from San Jose State University. Contact reporter Tony Bizjak at tbizjak@sacbee.com or 916-321-1059. Twitter: @TonyBizjak